Posted on 10/16/2010 5:22:26 AM PDT by Libloather
U.S. Will Enforce Marijuana Laws, State Vote Aside
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: October 15, 2010
LOS ANGELES — The Department of Justice says it intends to prosecute marijuana laws in California aggressively even if state voters approve an initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize the drug.
The announcement by Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, was the latest reminder of how much of the establishment has lined up against the popular initiative: dozens of editorial boards, candidates for office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other public officials.
Still, despite this opposition — or perhaps, to some extent, because of it — the measure, Proposition 19, appears to have at least a decent chance of winning, so far drawing considerable support in polls from a coalition of Democrats, independents, younger voters and men as Election Day nears. Should that happen, it could cement a cultural shift in California, where medical marijuana has been legal since 1996 and where the drug has been celebrated in popular culture at least since the 1960s.
But it could also plunge the nation’s most populous state into a murky and unsettling conflict with the federal government that opponents of the proposition said should make California voters wary of supporting it.
Washington has generally looked the other way as a growing medical marijuana industry has prospered here and in 14 other states and the District of Columbia, but Mr. Holder’s position — revealed in a letter this week to nine former chiefs of the Drug Enforcement Administration that was made public on Friday — made explicit that legalizing marijuana for recreational use would bring a whole new level of scrutiny from Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I just don’t see why they are so opposed to it, other than it put a lot of their people out of work and put the lie to this whole “war on drugs” garbage. I don’t think that the Fed can force California to enforce a Federal drug law so once this is legal the only ones out there looking for pot growers will be the Feds which is a drop in the bucket compared to state resources.
No, I am sure that they can't. How ironic it would be were the justice department to insist that California law enforcement personnel enforce a federal law that contradicts state law while simultaneously insisting that Arizona LE not enforce its own law regarding immigration that is in complete conformity with applicable federal law. But then again, I momentarily forgot that this is the Holder justice department, to which logic, consistency and fairness are utterly foreign concepts.
No matter the wisdom of the California ballot initiative (I oppose it), if passed, the federales will have to send FBI and DEA agents into the state to enforce federal possession laws. Perhaps we should cheer that so many “good government jobs” will be created for “dudes” willing to go undercover in college dorms and Marin County backyard parties. Sheesh, when will this odious administration go back under the campus rocks from which they crawled where they are so desperately missed?
So... States should enforce federal drug laws but not federal immigration laws.... OK.
CC
So, Holder won’t prosecute Black Panthers with baseball bats as being intimidators outside polling places , but he will prosecute some toker in the woods of Mendicino. Boy what a brave AG we have associated with Obamas White House...
States rights, going, going, GONE. and while the bands played, the crowds cheered, and the hero,s bowed !!!!!and the socialists smiled.
It will be amusing to see the DEA try to enforce federal laws against MJ if Prop 19 passes...which I think it will.
At most they could go after very large growers or retail outlets. But anyone growing a few plants in the backyard will have nothing to fear.
And, without local Police and Sheriffs, how the heck are they even going to know where to look?
When Prop 19 passes, the war against drugs is forever lost. And that's one of the primary funding mechanisms of the thousands of SWAT teams that have emerged over the last 20 years.
Not only should they legalize all drugs, (i.e. heroin, cocaine, etc) the government should deliver the stuff by the wheelbarrow full right to the addicts doors. Darwin’s principles would quickly take hold, and we’d save a ton of money in law enforcement. Not only that, but the mexican drug cartels would starve out of existence.
Holder’s reaction is one of the big reasons I’m supportive of Prop 19,
although it has flaws.
Primarily, it represents an incremental loosening of a network of
ill-conceived, illibertarian and unconstitutional laws that represent
governmental overreach at a massive scale and have contributed to the
chilling metastasis of statism and authoritarianism throughout the
country, with baldly un-American practices like “asset forfeiture” an
everyday consequence even for folks who don’t smoke pot or use other
drugs. Meanwhile, California’s finances cannot bear the burden of
prosecuting and incarcerating people for these crimes anymore.
Fundamentally, the Federal government ignored bedrock Constitutional
procedures in instituting the war on drugs. It saw a need (or
opportunity) for power, and just took it, stepping it forward over
three decades. That needs to be rolled back.
Holder’s and the Administration’s arrogance and disdain for the
Constitution is the underlying theme. They won’t prosecute Black
Panther thugs for intimidating voters at the polling place; they
regard enemy combatants as societal victims who should be processed
like purse-snatchers and shoplifters; they reside in a bubble that
regards citizens as snitches to be cultivated to report “fishy”
utterances; they regard states as pawns on a playing field rather than
sovereignties in their own right.
It’s no wonder that Prop. 19 is a red flag to the likes of Holder.
How dare a state defy the Administration in its overarching diktat?
I have no problem with it being imperfect and merely incremental,
then. Incrementalism has been a marvelous tool for the enemies of
liberty. Incrementalism is how we got where we are. Incrementalism
is how you boil a frog. Incrementalism works.
The federal government would steamroll the will of the people? Say it aint so!
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